How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling

After feeling a little bit dissapointed on my performance and ready to quite my position I knew nowhere to look. I found this book and decided to give it a try; knowing nothing about the author but just going by the reviews. I’ll tell you. I do not regret a thing about buying this book and I’m actually glad for doing so.
I was ready to quit my sales position in my company and was going to enter a “customer service” position which obviously pays less than sales. I felt dissapointed by my performance and my numbers; I thought I knew the business.
It was then when I picked up this book. Even though it was written a bit ago, it still reflects proper techniques and successful sales guides that anyone can easily follow. I didn’t know that such a strong but often unimportant word “why” would matter so much. After using this word “why not sir…” I could really get customers to go to the real truth; and of course, I had answers that made 100% sense to those rejections.

In a couple of weeks I was able to double my commissions and felt more confident about myself. I started enjoying my job more. I felt like my sales job was a game, and I was the leader on my team! Now if I really want I feel like I can get around any rejections and by just asking “why” you can make the sale. It works! Just ask, “WHY?” And you’ll get to the point; eventually your customer will not be able to give you an answer strong enough to justify that “why” and will make the sale. Of course, it doesn’t happen all the time, depending on your sales offer and your job and your customers.
Anyways, so to keep my story short. If you think you’re failing at your sales position please give this book a try. Study it, keep it next to your desk, in your pocket or briefcase. Refer to it any time you need it. Learn that enthusiasm is one of the main keys to selling, and learn to love the customer’s property, learn to ask “why?” and to agree with the customer.

Frank Brettger wrote this book using real life examples from his own experiences, and he shows you how to put them to use.
Think again. If you think you’ve failed, purchase this book. With very little time and dedication, you’ll see real results.

This is a classic book on fundamental sales techniques that remains sound after 60 years and dozens of printings. Yes, some of the pronouns are out of date (he assumes that all the sales professionals are men and all the secretaries are women – or that there are even secretaries – and so forth) and the dollar amounts given are made largely irrelevant by the inexorable power of inflation. However, the principles Frank Bettger laid down in 1947 will still work for any sales person working today.

Bettger is closely associated with his mentor, Dale Carnegie and his compelling use of language and story will remind you of the sound of the self-help books of that era. He provides 35 short chapters divided into six parts.

In part 1 Bettger wants you to learn to act with enthusiasm. Even if you don’t feel it now, if you learn to act with energy and enthusiasm, you will soon feel it and it will become the fuel of your success. He also talks about the power of making calls. You can’t sell until you get in front of people and you need to call a few people to get the appointment (he calls them interviews). Soon you will have a ratio of calls-sales-close that you can study and make more efficient. Bettger also wants you to get over fear and hesitation in talking with people you don’t know by taking a public speaking course – one where you actually get to speak a lot and learn from supportive and constructive criticism. He also wants you to plan you schedule by the week so you know what you are doing and then execute the plan. He also tells you to record what you did and what came of it. There are examples planning sheets. However, you can find great day planners nowadays from many different companies.

Part 2 takes you though his sales method. Basically, he shows you ways of finding out what a person wants and providing it for them. Bettger shows you how to find what your client’s “vulnerable spots” are. That is, what his motivators and needs are. You also need to learn how to connect with people. One way is to learn and use their name, find out about their hobbies, their family, and so forth. Write it all down and refer to it before you go to see the client so you can ask about his interests and show a personal interest in him. Bettger also takes you through his steps in the sales process, how to overcome objections, why you should ask why to get past the stated objection to the real objection.

Part 3 is all about confidence. You need to be confident in yourself and nothing is more important to that than your personal integrity and honesty. You also need the confidence of your clients, and Bettger shows you how to earn that by being honest, using testimonials, a professional appearance, and a courteous demeanor.

Part 4 discusses the importance of getting people to WANT to do business with you. He advises you to identify young people with talent and to encourage and help them in their career. You are going to be in business for a long time and helping develop these young people will help connect them to you as they rise. He wants you to smile, remember names (and tells you how), warns you against talking your way out of a sale, and how to approach what he calls “big men” – what we might call C-level executives.

Part 5 takes you through the mechanics of the sales process and how it begins before the sale. He is totally committed to selling by appointment, how to get “secretaries” (gatekeepers) on your side, why you must prepare for each sales presentation and why you must right down what went well and what went poorly immediately after you leave. You also learn why you should let the customer work your demo, getting leads from new customers, rules for closing the sale, and why you must show up with a prepared order or contract where all the person needs to do is sign the order. Assume the sale!

Part 6 talks about the powerful learning experience you get from failure. You must never let setbacks cause you to give up or quit. He uses Benjamin Franklin’s method for moral perfection as a model for perfecting your sales process and then talks to you about why you need to get to work now and how fleeting time really is.

Excellent book for anyone in sales, considering a sales career, or managing salespeople.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

What title do you write for such a book? I have only praise for Bettger’s book. The fact that it is a book written for salesmen should not keep anybody from reading it. In my life as a salesman, businessman and man no book (aside from the Bible)has helped me as much as this. If everybody applied its insight in human nature the world be a so much better and happier palce to live.

Simply a must-read for ANY salesman, businessman, manager or person that wants improve his/her results in interactions with other people.

BY FAR THE BOOK THAT HAS HAD THE VASTEST IMPACT ON MY LIFE AN CAREER! It doesn’t get better than this!

After selling advertising space in a throw away newspaper for 7 years, my wife gave birth to our second child. I knew that I needed a real job so she could stay home with the boys. Not liking sales, I went to the bookstore to try and find some ideas for my future. I ran across “How I Raised Myself From a Failure to Success in Selling” and it literally changed my life. It was the first sales book that I had ever read, but it mobolized me to make drastic changes in the way I ran my business, as well as how I felt about sales as a profession. Today I make well into the six figures and am finacially comfortable for the rest of my life. Go for it, you won’t be sorry!

Frank Bettger has played a huge role in helping me to be successful in business. Although he has been gone for years, his ideas live in us through putting his ideas into practice. I consider him a success mentor because his wisdom is easy to follow – but more than that it is right on! I started out as an engineer and a very timid salesman. Bettger has helped to change that. I guarantee that if you read this book you will be a changed person – it’s that incredible. Even before you finish it the first time (you will probably read it several times) you will have a clear vision on how to be successful.

Bettger covers all of the proactive bases: smart thinking, system thinking, futuristic thinking, and positive thinking. If you are truly seeking the kind of success and abundance that makes your life 100% livable – you must read this book. Many of his ideas are found in SUCCESS BOUND, another book built on learning how to live a proactively life that is God centered and fulfilling.

Everything that I have put into practice that Bettger has recommended in his books has worked. He has brought me success by focusing on what is important in selling and using my God given talents and my thinking ability to be a better salesman.

You will find that this exciting book becomes a part of you. Don’t hold back – let it happen. In fact, spend 10 to 15 minutes every morning for the next several days focusing your thoughts on the truths of this book, thereby allowing them to seep deep into your subconscious mind. If you do this I guarantee God’s wisdom will most assuredly bring you the success and abundance you deserve.

Enjoy this book and your new proactive and successful life!

This was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read. It is such a pleasure to get good, practical, workable information in such an easy-to-read format. Bettger’s story is filled with excellent illustrations of some of the most powerful principles from Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. And Dale Carnegie wrote a glowing introduction to Bettger’s book.

As the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, I’m expert on self-help, and I can tell you without any reservations that Bettger’s book will help you deal with people better. And if you’re in sales, I don’t see how it could possibly do anything but increase your income. I recommend it highly.

This is a book written in 1949, and so the wording, the amounts, and so on, are based in that era. But my dad was right when he bought this book, read it, and lived by it, and passed it along to me. It’s an easy read, and as you read along in it, you see what skills a successful salesman needs (or, indeed, what anyone needs that wants to influence another.)

Find out what the other person wants, and then help them find the best way to get it.

Dale Carnegie wrote the introduction, and showed his enthusiasm about this book. This book urges one to be enthusiastic, and this book shows one how to be enthusiastic–enthusiasm can’t be faked, and enthusiasm works and true enthusiasm helps lead to success. There are lots of other organizational and selling skills discussed in this book. Again, this book shows its years in the dollar amounts and some of the situations that are discussed, but this book keeps its continuing relevance in the wisdom that it conveys. Be honest, and listen, said Bettger.

Listen to this review, it’s honest, and read this book, and learn from it. You’ll be glad to read it, as my dad and I were, and I’ve asked my sons to read it as well.

I looked over the other reviews of this book and almost universally they were very laudatory. You will also be glad to read this book and to look at a lot of ways how you can be more successful and still stay true to an honest view of the world and how anyone can, by looking for what someone else needs, to help them get there, whether you are in sales or you think you are in any other occupation (hey, we all help meet someone’s needs no matter what we do, even when we define and meet our own needs or our customer’s/client’s/friend’s/love’s/family’s etc’s needs.)

I have given away hundreds of copies of this book to my employees. If a new salesman could or would read only one page of one book ever, page 18 is it. In essence it says you can’t track your performance if you don’t track your efforts leading to performance. I read this at the age of 18 when I started at Merrill Lynch, and by the age of 20 I was the Sr. VP of Bear, Stearns. I thank this book for all my success and none of the failures!

Everything you’ve read or heard about sales came from this man. Due to the economy, I had to get out of my comfort zone and take a sales job. First off, let me say I hate sales because I have a view of sales people as being pushy, manipulative and liars. I didn’t want to be that. Well thanks to a great boss, he recommended I get this book to overcome my perceptions and help me become successful. I am so thankful he told me about this book. It gives me the concepts, tactics to sell without being the sleazy sales guy. I also got the new edition of Zig Ziglars – Art of closing the sale. These two books have really helped me erase the bias and negative perceptions and has given me the tools to succeed.

One example is to focus on what the customer really wants and link the “why” with the benefits of your product or service. You don’t need to to be pushy or even mention the competition.

That was in 2009. I am now able to successfully sell in a straight commission role, where before, I never would have taken the chance. The last sales book to recommend with this one is “Go for No” by Richard Fenton. These are the only sales books I own and Zig’s book isn’t even as good as the other two as for as getting my mindset right about selling and getting more sales and achieving the results I want.

Bettger gives practical time tested priciples and poses real life examples from sales calls he made as a life insurance salesman in Philadelphia during the 1920s & 1930s. Despite the advent of technology, you will find these principles never change. It will certainly improve your personal and professional life by reading and following Bettger’s advice. Great book ranks with “The Richest Man In Babylon”, “How To Win Friends And Influence People” and “The Greatest Salesman” as being the top self improvement books. A must read.